Thank you, Greta.
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors,
Native American Proverb
we borrow it from our children.
We can’t let our children and grandchildren down.
That’s the conclusion I came to as I stood among a crowd of 1200 people in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. We were gathered for a Fridays for Future climate strike rally.
These weekly demonstrations are a part of the international, youth-led movement of students taking time out of their school day to call for strong climate action from our elected officials.
This November 7th event in Charlotte was noteworthy: it was headlined by Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old environmental activist from Sweden who, in August 2018, started the very first school strike for climate by sitting alone outside the Swedish parliament. Today marked her 62nd week of protest.
Greta is an outspoken, single-minded advocate for the earth. She is dogged, determined, and direct: “For well over a year, young people have been striking from school every Friday, demanding our leaders take responsibility and to unite behind the science,” she said. “The people in power have not yet done that… So, we have no choice but to go on as long as it takes.”
As inspiring as Greta’s speech was, it was the words from Charlotte students, ranging in age from 8 to 18, that moved me to tears. “We don’t want to be here,” was the repeated refrain from kids who would prefer to be where they belonged—in school—between 12:00 and 2:00 on a Friday afternoon, instead of here, trying to convince adults that our planet—and their futures—are in crisis.
Although I was too far back to see the brave young students speaking at the microphone, I could hear their high-pitched, innocent voices:
We're not going to have a very nice world and it's not fair.
I do not like how we are treating the Earth. I am so upset.
It will get even MORE worse.
Our children feel betrayed, and they are afraid for their future.
During the car ride home with my adult son, a Bob Dylan song came up in his playlist:
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Dylan wrote this anthem for change in 1964. On this chilly, windswept November afternoon, some 55 years later, Greta echoed Dylan’s message. But this time, it’s his generation, the current generation in power, who she called out:
“It is we young people who are the future, but there is not time for us to grow up and become the ones in charge, because we need to tackle the climate right now… If the adults and people in power are too immature to realize that, then we need to let them know.” And Greta added, “Change is coming whether you like it or not.”
She’s right. Our society must renew it’s commitment to our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, to whom our planet rightfully belongs. I’m glad that so many young people are taking on this fight, but they can’t do it alone. Combating climate change takes all of us, worldwide—whether it’s old men planting trees or young students holding signs and using their voices to demand action.
Action. And a steadfast commitment to “unite,” as Greta says, “behind the science.”
The time will soon be here when my grandchild will long for the cry of a loon, the flash of a salmon, the whisper of spruce needles, or the screech of an eagle. But he will not make friends with any of these creatures; and when his heart aches with longing, he will curse me. Have I done all to keep the air fresh? Have I cared enough about the water? Have I left the eagle to soar in freedom? Have I done everything I could to earn my grandchild’s fondness?
Chief Dan George
